Inver Grove Heights Destination ImagiNation Teams Take Home Lessons From Global Finals

There's no mistaking the pride in Paul Coffey's voice when he talks about the Destination ImagiNation program in Inver Grove Heights.

Coffey, who coaches one of the program's two Simley High School teams, traveled with his team to Knoxville, Tenn. from May 25-28 to compete in the Destination ImagiNation Global Finals—an international competition that pits hundreds of qualifying teams from the United States and other nations against each other. This year, four teams from Inver Grove Heights participated in the finals—a new record and a significant accomplishment for the program.

Coffey's team, "Team Epic", placed 12th at the secondary level in the challenge they participated in, while the other high school team, "DIsolves Everything", placed 10th at the secondary level in their challenge. A team from the Inver Grove Heights Middle School tied for 18th place at the middle level with another team from Colorado. Finally, an elementary school team with members from both Hilltop and Salem Hills Elementary Schools placed 39th in their challenge.

"All four teams presented themselves incredibly well and had a fantastic time,” Coffey said. "Just the fact that Inver Grove Heights was able to bring four teams to globals is a first."

Middle school student Lindsay Schneider is a Global Finals veteran, having competed in 2008 with an elementary school team. This year, Schneider said, she used her experience to help coach her teammates, some of whom had never participated in the event before.

"It was the first year for two people on my team going to globals,” Schneider said. “Everybody has nerves before they go, but once we’re [competing], even the most nervous person seems like they’re a natural."

Traveling to Global Finals was a first for Brittany Raab, a member of the elementary school Destination ImagiNation team. The opening and closing ceremonies for the finals left an impression on Raab, who compared them to the Olympic ceremonies. But Raab was also roped into collectible pin trading between the teams during the competition.

Many of the teams are given unique sets of pins to trade with other teams, and some sets are more rare than others, Schneider explained.

"Pin trading is a big deal," Schneider said. “It’s really cool to actually see the different teams, the different countries there, and to see the different pins the countries come up with.”

Meeting with other teams from other countries and cultures through pin trading or the competition itself is an important aspect of Global Finals, Coffey said, because it introduces students to other languages and cultures.

But the competition also fosters a sense of leadership among participating students, said Miki Schneider, the mother of Lindsay Schneider and a coach for the middle school team.

“It was amazing to see what some of these even young kids pulled together," Miki Schneider said. "They know that they are leaders.”

This year, the Inver Grove Heights Destination ImagiNation Booster Club raised roughly $8,000 through a series of fundraisers to pay for the students' transportation and registration expenses. Next year's season begins in September, when the national Destination ImagiNation organization issues challenges for the teams to choose from. Between now and then, Coffey hopes the program will continue to grow and draw in more students.

“I’ll be coaching until the day I die,” Coffey said of his dedication to Destination ImagiNation. “I just like to think that I made a difference in my community”